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YouTube: you scared?

Teenagers now watch more YouTube than television, according to research. But how much do teachers need to know about what their students might be watching? Andrew Hankinson takes a journey to some of the darkest corners of the video-sharing platform. From graphic sexual imagery to dangerous political language, he uncovers a world in which young people will go to almost any lengths to ‘outgross’ one another

Limmy was topless, his headphones were on, and a realistic-looking dildo was between his legs. He tugged on it, then bent over to lick it, before pretending, faux horror on his face, that he’d just realised his webcam was live-streaming.

Limmy is a very successful and very funny internet celebrity (1, see box below) – he started with a website, then moved on to podcasts. He’s had his own television show, written two books, and toured with his live shows.

But live-streams of him playing computer games, broadcast on YouTube, are his bread and butter (alongside online comedy videos like the ...

The world of YouTube

1. His real name, and his YouTube username, is Brian Limond and his Twitter handle is @DaftLimmy. He has 55,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel and 8 million views of his videos. He’s also posted 62,300 tweets and has 299,000 Twitter followers.

2. YouTube gives the following stats: over 1 billion users and 1 billion hours of video watched daily. Local versions of the site exist in 88 countries and it comes in 76 different languages.

3. Oxford Dictionaries defines the term as: “A person who uploads, produces or appears in videos on the video-sharing website YouTube.”

4. Smosh, a comedy duo, came top of the Variety survey. They have more than 22 million subscribers to their channel.

5. Zoe Sugg, who has the YouTube username Zoella, has more than 11 million subscribers and a book deal (she has so far published three books). She also has a make-up range.

6. Last year, the magazine Fashionista ranked the top beauty YouTubers and placed Patrick Starrr, one of the few male beauty vloggers, at number 2, with more than 2 million subscribers. It put Dulce Candy first – she also has more than 2 million subscribers.

7. For example, Miniminter (real name Simon Minter) has 6 million subscribers. He records himself playing Fifa football video games.

8. His most popular video has had 12 million views and focuses on a conspiracy theory around the $100 bill (see bit.ly/BillConspiracy)

9. He revealed the demographic breakdown of his viewers in the video – the two largest groups were 18- to 24-year-olds and 25- to 34-year-olds, but the third largest group – at 11 per cent of his figures – was 13- to 17-year-olds.

10. PewDiePie earned £11.8 million in 2016, according to Forbes

11. You can read his statement on the controversial video in full on his Tumblr page: pewdie.tumblr.com

12. In 2014, the Advertising Standards Authority reminded YouTubers they were breaking the law if they failed to clearly disclose that they were being paid to promote a product featured in their videos. You can read YouTube’s rules on this at bit.ly/ProdRules

13. A lot of their findings are also already available at their project website www.celebyouth.org

14. There have been several reports of people doing dangerous or illegal things in search of fame on YouTube. Just last month, a 19-year-old woman allegedly shot her partner in the chest and killed him on camera. He was apparently holding a book to his chest and believed it would stop the bullet and make him and his partner YouTube stars.

15. Yale University has placed hundreds of lectures online at oyc.yale.edu. In the 14 July issue of Tes, Andrew Foster wrote how “watching my A-level history students use these for their independent investigation coursework was an education for me as much as them. In many ways, the experience of the lecture online is superior to that in the hall itself.”

The top-earning YouTubers

A list of the top 10 highest-earning YouTubers was compiled by Forbes magazine in 2016.

1. PewDiePie ($15 million)

2. Roman Atwood ($8 million)

3. Lily Singh ($7.5 million)

4. Smosh ($7 million)

5= Tyler Oakley ($6 million)

5= Nerdie Nummies ($6 million)

7= Markiplier ($5.5 million)

7= German Germendia ($5.5 million)

9= Miranda Sings ($5 million)

9= Good Mythical Morning ($5 million)

What YouTube says

Thea O’Hear from YouTube says: “YouTube is a platform for free expression with a rich and varied corpus of content, including great resources for young people and teachers. Users should be aware that we don’t pre-screen content on YouTube, but we do have clear community guidelines that set out what content is appropriate to post, and we remove flagged content that breaks our rules. We’ve also built a range of tools to give users greater control over what they see on the platform, including an 18+ age-gate and Restricted Mode, which filters out more mature content. We’re committed to working with schools, experts and NGOs to ensure people understand and get the best out of YouTube, including running bespoke programmes for 16-18-year-olds, like Internet Citizens, which teaches young people how to use the tools available on YouTube and have positive online experiences, as well as using their voice and creativity to drive social change.”

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